Farewell to… racehorse vet John Gray
Racehorse vet John Gray died on 19 September, aged 87.
John qualified as a vet in 1947 and looked after the horses of Gerald Balding and Peter Hastings-Bass during his time in Lambourn.
After a spell as vet at Perth racecourse, he moved to Kenya attending to racehorses and the occasional elephant.
In the mid-1970s, he returned to England and became manager of the Sussex Stud, then Lockinge Stud, before starting a practice in partnership with Barry Park.
His expertise on tendon injuries was legendary and he became known as “the man with X-ray hands“.
He also hunted with the Old Berks and rode several point-to-point winners. John is survived by his wife Mo. Any donations to be made to the Injured Jockeys Fund.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (11 October 2012)
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.